A wireless communication device, such as a mobile phone device or a smart phone, may include at least one Subscriber Identity Module (SIM). Each SIM may enable one or more subscriptions corresponding to Radio Access Technologies (RATs). Specifically, with respect to multi-SIM wireless communication devices, when all SIMs are active, the wireless communication device may be a Multi-SIM-Multi-Active (MSMA) wireless communication device. When one SIM in a Multi-SIM wireless communication device is active while the rest of the SIM(s) is/are standing by, the wireless communication device may be a Multi-SIM-Multi-Standby (MSMS) wireless communication device. The RATs may include, but not limited to, a Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA), Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA), Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) (particularly, Evolution-Data Optimized (EVDO)), Universal Mobile Telecommunications Systems (UMTS) (particularly, Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), Long Term Evolution (LTE), High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA), Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multi Access (TD-SCDMA) and the like), Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), Code Division Multiple Access 1× Radio Transmission Technology (1×), General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), Wi-Fi, Personal Communications Service (PCS), and other protocols that may be used in a wireless communications network or a data communications network.
Uplink (UL) activities of one RAT subscription may de-sense (interfere/collide with) another subscription. In some cases, UL activities of a subscription can de-sense another subscription with higher priority, causing high degradation of UL performance of the de-sensed subscription. For example, GSM activities (e.g., call, paging, and/or the like) may de-sense a LTE subscription. In one non-limiting example, such a scenario can frequently occur in Dual-SIM-Dual-Active (DSDA) or other multi-SIM wireless communication devices with a single set of transmission hardware. The problem is exacerbated when the victim subscription has high priority and high activity. When de-sensing occurs, the aggressor subscription may be blanked (i.e., halt transmission) or have its power reduced (transmission power back off) to curb the de-sense on a higher priority subscription. The blanking and the power back-off may cause an increase in bit error rate for the aggressor subscription as detected by the network. Thus, high network penalty may be imposed by the network on the UL activities of the aggressor subscription when power back-off or blanking is used.
A Buffer Status Report (BSR) may indicate to a base station an amount of resources desired by the wireless communication device to transmit a corresponding amount of data at UL for a given subscription. Based on the BSR, the base station may allocate an appropriate amount of resources (i.e., UL grants) for the wireless communication device to transmit the data over the network associated with the subscription. Bit errors may occur when the wireless communication device is unable to transmit data at the corresponding allocated UL grants wireless communication device to blanking and/or power back-off.
When the bit error rate (e.g., the Block Error Rate (BLER)) for the wireless communication device as detected by the network is greater than a predetermined threshold, the network may penalize (the subscription of) the wireless communication device by allocating fewer resources. For example, the network may reduce the UL Modulation Coding Scheme (MCS) and/or reduce scheduling for the aggressor subscription. The penalizing effect may be aggregated as the de-sensing activity goes on because more penalty may be imposed as the wireless communication device continues to make bit errors wireless communication device to blanking/power back-off of the aggressor subscription. This is especially pronounced in the networks with no Discontinuous Transmission (DTX) detection features or with limited UL resources (e.g., in Time-Division Duplexing (TDD) networks). DTX detection-enabled networks do not consider blanked UL activities at UL grants as a bit error.